When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will.

A Certain Justice

Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.

The Hunt Club

A federal judge is murdered, found shot to death in his home - together with the body of his mistress. The crime grips San Francisco. To homicide inspector Devin Juhle, it first looks like a simple case of a wife's jealousy and rage. But Juhle's investigation reveals that the judge had powerful enemies...some of whom may have been willing to kill to prevent him from meddling in their affairs.

Treasure Hunt

Mickey Dade hates deskwork, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists - a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards. One "person of interest" in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe - young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends.

The Hunter

Raised by loving adoptive parents, San Francisco private investigator Wyatt Hunt never had an interest in finding his birth family-until he gets a chilling text message from an unknown number: "How did ur mother die?"

Damage

The Curtlees are a powerful force in San Francisco, unscrupulous billionaires who’ve lined every important pocket in the Bay Area in pursuit of their own ascent. So when the family’s heir, Ro Curtlee, was convicted of rape and murder a decade ago, the fallout for those who helped to bring him to justice was swift and uncompromising. The jury foreman was fired from his job and blacklisted in his industry. The lead prosecutor was pushed off the fast track, her dreams of becoming district attorney dashed.

A Plague of Secrets

The first victim is Dylan Vogler, a charming ex-convict who manages the Bay Beans West coffee shop in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. When his body is found, inspectors discover that his knapsack is filled with high-grade marijuana. It soon becomes clear that San Francisco's A-list flocked to Bay Beans West not only for their caffeine fix. But how much did Maya Townshend - the beautiful socialite niece of the city's mayor, and the absentee owner of the shop - know about what was going on inside her business?

Guilt

Mark Dooher is a prosperous San Francisco attorney and a prominent Catholic, the last person anyone would suspect of a brutal crime. But Dooher, a paragon of success and a master of all he touches, is about to be indicted for murder. Charged with savagely killing his own wife, Dooher is fighting for his reputation and his life in a high-profile case that is drawing dozens of lives into its wake.

Betrayal: A Dismas Hardy Novel

When Dismas Hardy agrees to clean up the caseload of recently disappeared attorney Charlie Bowen, he thinks it will be easy. But one of the cases is far from small-time - the appeal to overturn the murder conviction of National Guard reservist Evan Scholler, who has been sentenced to life without parole for the murder of an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Two rapid-fire events in Iraq conspired to bring the men into fatal conflict.

The Second Chair: A Dismas Hardy Novel

Dismas Hardy is finally on top: as a managing partner at his thriving, newly reorganized law firm, he's a rainmaker and fix-it guy for clients leery of taking their chances in a courtroom. Now Hardy's up-and-coming associate, Amy Wu, brings him a high-profile case: Andrew Bartlett, the 17-year-old son of a prominent San Francisco family, has been arrested for the double slaying of his girlfriend and his English teacher.

The Motive: A Dismas Hardy Novel

It starts with a double homicide. Because of the high profiles of the victims - a politically connected socialite and his glamorous fiancée - the mayor of San Francisco herself demands that a high-ranking detective be put on the case. And so Abe Glitsky is thrust into the controversial investigation.

The First Law: A Dismas Hardy Novel

At last recovered from a near-fatal gunshot wound, Lieutenant Abe Glitsky is back at work. But instead of returning to his old job as chief of homicide detail, he's assigned a desk job in the payroll department, where he has no business investigating murders -until his father's closest friend is shot dead in a downtown pawn shop.

The Keeper: Dismas Hardy, Book 15

On the evening before Thanksgiving, Hal Chase, a guard in the San Francisco County Jail, drives to the airport to pick up his step-brother for the weekend. When they return, Hal’s wife, Katie, has disappeared without a clue. By the time Dismas Hardy hears about this, Katie has been missing for five days. The case strikes close to home because Katie had been seeing Hardy’s wife, a marriage counselor. By this time, the original Missing Persons case has become a suspected homicide, and Hal is the prime suspect.

Hard Evidence: A Dismas Hardy Novel

When the bullet-ridden body of a Silicon Valley billionaire washes up on shore, assistant D.A. Dismas Hardy finds himself the prosecutor in San Francisco's murder trial of the century. The suspect: a Japanese call girl with a long list of prominent clients. But when a bizarre series of events blows the case wide open, Hardy finds himself on the other side of the law - as a lawyer for the defense.

The Mercy Rule: Dismas Hardy, Book 5

The Mercy Rule is a brilliant and moving human drama set against a backdrop of relentless suspense, legal complexity and moral ambiguity. Dismas Hardy, the former bartender, loving husband and father, and reluctant defense attorney of The 13th Juror, returns here in his most challenging case.

The Ophelia Cut: Dismas Hardy, Book 14

Moses McGuire has good reason to be concerned about his beautiful 23-year-old daughter, Brittany. She moves quickly from one boyfriend to the next, and always seems to prefer a new and mysterious stranger to a man she knows something about. But her most recent ex, Rick Jessup, isn’t willing to let her go, culminating in a terrible night when Brittany is raped. Within 24 hours, Rick Jessup is dead, Moses McGuire is the prime suspect in the investigation, and Dismas Hardy has been hired to defend his brother-in-law.

The Hearing: A Dismas Hardy Novel

The call comes at midnight. It looks like a tragic and petty murder - a rising star in San Francisco's legal firmament found shot in a dark alley. But for homicide lieutenant Abe Glitsky, the crime cuts horribly close to home - unknown to anyone, the victim was his daughter. Seething, Glitsky leans hard on his only suspect - a homeless heroin addict found lingering over his daughter's body, with her jewelry in his pocket and a smoking gun in his hand.

The Oath: A Dismas Hardy Novel

When the head of San Francisco's largest HMO dies in his own hospital, no one doubts that it is anything but the result of massive injuries inflicted by a random hit-and-run accident. But the autopsy soon tells a different story - an overdose of potassium killed him, and the attending physician, Eric Kensing, becomes the prime suspect in a high-profile homicide.

Pam Sturgess says:"I'm an IDIOT! Don't YOU be an idiot. Skip this one"

The 13th Juror: A Dismas Hardy Novel

In The 13th Juror, Dismas Hardy, lawyer/investigator, undertakes the defense of Jennifer Witt, accused of murdering her husband and their eight-year-old son as well as her first husband, who had died nine years earlier from an apparent drug overdose. While preparing his case, Hardy learns that both of Jennifer's husbands had physically abused her. But Jennifer refuses to allow a defense that presumes her guilt. She is not guilty, she claims. Hardy is now driven to seek an alternative truth a jury can believe.

Nothing but the Truth

When San Francisco attorney Dismas Hardy gets a call saying his wife never picked the kids up from school, he's worried. Frannie's a great mother. Turns out there's a good explanation: She's in jail. Unbeknownst to her husband, Frannie has just appeared before a grand jury - and refused to share a crucial piece of information about her friend Ron, who's accused of killing his wife.

The Vig: A Dismas Hardy Novel

A beautiful woman paid it with her body. A seedy lawyer used somebody else's money. It's the vig - the exorbitant interest mob loan sharks take on their money. Now, in the city by the Bay, everyone has to pay.

Rasputin's Revenge

In Son of Holmes, John Lescroart introduced Auguste Lupa, reputed son of the greatest detective of all time... and possessor of a brilliant deductive mind in his own right. Now, in Rasputin’s Revenge, Lupa is summoned to the court of the Russian Czar - where, with a bit of unexpected assistance from none other than Holmes and Watson, he untangles a chilling plot that holds the Winter Palace in a lethal grip....

Dead Irish: A Dismas Hardy Novel

In his new life as a bartender at the Little Shamrock, Dismas Hardy is just hoping for a little peace. He's left both the police force and his law career behind. Unfortunately it's not as easy to leave behind the memory of a shattering personal loss - but for the time being, he can always take the edge off with a stiff drink and a round of darts.

The Enemy Inside: A Paul Madriani Novel

One of the most successful lawyers in the country, Olinda Serna, is a master at managing money as well as her influential clients. After years of fierce combat in the political trenches, Serna knows all the dirty secrets, where the bodies are buried, and how deeply they are stacked. When she's killed in a roadside crash in the high desert of Southern California, powerful heads in Washington begin to panic, worried that their secrets may not be safe anymore.

Publisher's Summary

When Dr. Caryn Dryden is found floating dead in her hot tub, homicide inspector Devin Juhle targets a suspect close to home: her husband, Stuart Gorman. After all, Stuart recently asked for a divorce...and he stands to gain millions in insurance. His alibi - that he was at his cabin on Echo Lake that weekend - doesn't keep him out of hot water. But maybe a shrewd attorney will.

Gina Roake, a partner in Dismas Hardy's firm, is eager to take on such a high-profile case, especially when the client's innocence seems so easy to prove. Yet the more time she spends with Stuart, the more complicated her feelings become; she feels strangely drawn to him at first, then has to confront the possibility of a dark history lurking in his past. Desperate to know the truth, Gina calls in Wyatt Hunt to investigate. Before the facts are in, her client is on the lam; he's already been tried in the press, and so he's certain the courtroom won't bring him any mercy either. Racing to a stunning conclusion as Gina uncovers disturbing answers, John Lescroart spins a chilling story of secrets, love, and lies.

John Lescroarts has written about Hardy and Glitsky for about twenty years now. He may feel like he needs to break out into new territory, but I humbly disagree. He has made real lives of these fictional characters. They have not stood still, as many other writers of thrillers have done. They get married, raise children, have tragedies and successes, and climb in their careers, although in the ways that ordinary people do, not as some kind of Supermen. This book may be the last of the duo. Gina Roake is the star here, and she has a real history herself. The widow of David Freeman, perhaps the best lawyer in the San Francisco Legal community, Gina, who is now a partner of the law firm that bears the names of the protagonists, withdrew after the death of her husband. She now has taken on a murder case. Her first, this is a case of many facets. Gina believes that her client is innocent, a rarity. Most defense lawyers tend not to want to hear whether their clients are guilty or innocent., There is a strong circumstantial case against Stuart Gorman. The courtroom scenes hold your attention. Lescroarts is certainly not Grisham, but he knows how to create believable characters, a murder case with truly complicated aspects, and he has a dramatic touch that keeps you rooting for Gina. If you have not read any of the Hardy-Glitsky books, I recommend all of them. Some are obviously better than others, but you will be drawn into the lives of these people.You can't go wrong here.

Not sure why I bought this book -- in general, legal thrillers drive me nuts (do doctors read medical thrillers?) but this was an okay book. Better than okay, in fact. Thoroughly enjoyable.

I think part of the difference was Lescroat's choice of protagonists. Gina Roake, a lady lawyer who'd taken a professional bashing, been out of the game for a time, comes to this case just to help out a friend with what everyone expected would be a simple appearance. Then it rather quickly turns into a murder trial, something she's never done before, ever. What was charming (no other word will quite do) was the lack of arrogance involved here. Roake makes mistakes -- big ones, we see it, she sees it, but instead of covering it up with bluster and blaming everyone else, she admits it. Wow! How uncommon is that? HA -- but there was a kind of touching integrity to her character, something not seen often at all in the halls of justice, either in fiction or real life.

Without issuing a spoiler, Lescroat also targets an very unusual person as the villain -- or one of them, anyway. Political correctness usually shields some people from being portrayed as nasty or criminally inclined, but not Lescroat. That, too, was refreshing.

Okay, so I'm not likely to turn into a fanatic fan of legal thrillers, but this was a very good book -- I'll look for more of Lescroat books, I can say that.

For those who enjoy a really good mystery with numerous suspects, you will find this book right up your alley. And just how gifted is the lady lawyer who takes the case? She's up against some daunting circumstantial evidence that can put her client away for murder. It's a good story that draws you in and keeps you tuned in.

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